So just earlier today, I applied for an internship and six minutes later, I receive an email from the company requesting me to complete an assignment that is expected to take 20-25 hours as part of the screening process. I checked the company’s website, and the email matched up to the one that contacted me, but I am still wondering if this request is standard, and whether or not I should proceed with the assignment.
What field are you in? I’ve never heard of this, but I deal in humanities. Perhaps tech fields use this as a screening process?
That sounds really off to me.
@NerdMom88 My major is economics. I am just concerned that the company may be trying to sneakily get me to do an assignment for them without actually paying me to do so.
I bet students who end up getting summer positions with the Breakthrough Collaborative sometimes spend almost that on their sample lesson prep & delivery. Will you learn something by doing the assignment? Then I’d say do it. You can take away that experience, even if you don’t get the internship.
@mads92 I had the same thought, especially with their very prompt response time – they had no time to go over your resume before they replied.
My suggestion would be to contact your adviser and ask if this is standard procedure.
I had to do a large assignment for a job interview once - it involved about 15 hours of research and consideration, and another 5 hours of prep (creating a presentation and script). The effort was clearly academic - it would not provide value to the company - and was used consistently for all candidates.
Short answer: It may be legit, but more information is needed.